the evolution of caca

cacadefinition

i can imagine you have heard the word and maybe even used it a time or two.

my first job out of college, i worked as an early interventionist to children with special needs in a typically developing daycare program, inclusion for babies. one of the children in the class took to calling me caca for no apparent reason than my name is jessica emphasis on the ca in her little mind and there you have it. a little blond precious little girl who was one of my favorites might i add.

you know the kids that have nicknames? they are just a little bit cooler that the rest of us normal jessicas. so my entire life, i have wanted a nickname. please someone call me jess? jesse? blue eyes? j? something, anything?

no. jessica it was my entire live long day until that day when that little blondie decided to pin me as caca. and yes, everyone in the daycare thought it was funny and cute, but it didn't stick. not really. i was still ms. jessica.

until i met my best friend and she had a little girl. her girl took caca and ran with it...she crawled, then walked...then ran...you get it.

from the moment she laid eyes on me in her little mind, i was caca and nine years later, i am caca to many. all my close friends know me as caca and call me that primarily. when i hear one of them say jessica it sounds not right and weird. since she is a grown up nine year old occasionally she tried to call me by my proper name, but always she resorts back to caca, that is just who i am to her. cool enough for a nickname.

but with the nickname of caca, there are several variations she has created...and some are more inappropriate than the name itself.

cacacaca wacawaca cacacocky cock (and of course, she has primarily used this one in a large group)

and i have to turn and look at her and identify myself as yes, that's me, i am the one she just called that! and say, "yes honey."

hi, my name is jessica, i mean caca and i have always wanted a nickname and now i have one and it is cock. thank you thank you very much. remember what i said earlier about people having nicknames are that much cooler? i take it back.

but not really.

and for the children that i have nannied for, i have always been ms. jessica. always. no exception. lately, the boys have taken to calling me ms. dukes occasionally because mr. bwad is waaaay cooler than me, and having his last name well...qualifies me for nanny of the year. but never anything else.

until...lil bit heard my friends girl calling me caca - and for the past three or so months, i finally have a name. ms. jessica is impossible for a one year old to say...

but NOT caca.

finawwy ms. jessica has a name. her names is caca.

it's as easy to say as mama. and all day long now with every other breath i hear caca CACA CACA! over and over, time and again. and just today i graduated to...

cocky. all day long. cocky.

caca art by the girl in the first picture.

after it was deemed that i was going to be caca for the rest of my life and it caught on...i decided that our friend beth should be called bessie. because that sounded like a cow, and if i was going to have to be poop, she was going to have to be a cow. and it stuck. she is bessie to most everyone she knows now.

you are welcome, bessie.

p.s. brad HATES caca for a nickname for me, and everytime he hears it, it makes his skin crawl. i always tell him i was caca long before i knew him...but then he heard lil bit say it and he thought it was precious. of course.